GRoNEing on a Frosty Day…

 Ashland, MA    December 30, 2017 – Thirteen racers braved the frigid temperatures for our annual New Year’s Gravity Race, this year being hosted by Peter Lentros at his LenJet

Raceway.  We had an extended morning practice session so we decided to only have two races, the first was for T-Jets on Peter’s Python Max Trax followed by Gravity Cars on Peter’s Boomerang Viper track.  We had a few GRoNE first timers in attendance –  John Stezelecki was FINALLY able to join us using cars he purchased from Joel Pennington over three years ago and Greg Burstein who showed up with some Gravity cars I built for Russ Upton 15 months ago.  Also joining us for the first time this season were Mike Tiffany, Erik Eckhardt and Durf Hyson – great to have them back in the fold.

 

T-Jets on the Python

Greg Burstein simply dominated the event in what otherwise would have been a really close race, winning the event by a whopping 10 laps.  The next 10 finishing positions were all within 10 laps including a five-way tie for 7^th!  Don Hall ran a great race to finish in second, sections ahead of Jonathan Reimels in third followed by John Reimels and Mike Tiffany in 4^th and 5^th respectively.  Greg has clearly joined the top rank of T-Jet builders, his car had speed and handling both of which come in handy on the Python.

 

Driver	Yellow	Blue	White	Red	TOTAL
Greg Burstein	26	27	27	27	107
Don Hall	24	24	24	25	97.34
Jonathan Reimels	23	26	25	23	97.07
John Reimels	24	23	24	24	95
Mike Tiffany	23	25	23	23	94
Tom Gray	21	23	24	23	91
Erik Eckhardt	20	22	24	22	88.33
Dave Muse	23	21	23	21	88.26
John Stezelecki	21	22	23	22	88.22
Jim Macartney	21	23	23	21	88.14
Peter Lentros	18	21	24	25	88.07
Durf Hyson	14	17	19	19	69

 

Gravity Cars on the Boomerang

Dave Muse had a call from home and had to leave before the start of the 2^nd race (I hope everything is OK – JR) but we were joined by Rob Hayes, clearly the best dressed man in

LenJet (Unfortunately it was because he had to go to a funeral that morning… – JR) leaving the field at 12 racers.  Practice was eventful as folks learned the intricacies of setting up their controller for their car on this track; the Boomerang has numerous long straights leading directly into tight corners so lots of brakes and just the right amount of choke are the key to making it around this track.  Greg was off the pace with the cars I built 15 months ago so I made the mistake of loaning him a more recent build, an action that both my son and I regret!  (just kidding, a 2^nd and 3^rd are just as rewarding as a 1^st and 2^nd… -JR).  With time running out, it was time to see what everyone had.

Once again Greg ran away with the show but this time he only won by 5 laps over Jonathan in second.  Maybe if we had stayed for another race, someone could have beaten

him!   I was able to finish third but I must have practiced too much on the gutter lanes as I got higher lap totals in Red and Yellow than I did in Blue and White…  Rob Hayes had a promising few heats until he encountered controller issues in his third heat but he managed to keep it together well enough to finish 4^th.  Erik Eckhardt finished 5^th using a M10 motored Sidewinder, the first non- M20 motored anglewinder across the line.  Other cars of interest include a iso-flucrum chassis built by Durf, it proved fast enough but it needs more development time.  Donny Hall also had an in-line M30 motored car from Al Thurman that wasn’t that far off the pace.

 

Driver	Yellow	Blue	White	Red	TOTAL
Greg Burstein	23	24	23	23	93
Jonathan Reimels	21	22	23	22	88
John Reimels	22	21	20	22	85
Rob Hayes	22	21	19	21	83
Erik Eckhardt	18	21	21	19	79
Mike Tiffany	20	20	19	19	78.64
Don Hall	21	20	19	18	78.38
Peter Lentros	19	19	17	19	74.83
John Stezelecki	17	20	19	18	74.58
Tom Gray	17	18	19	18	72
Jim Macartney	17	17	16	16	66
Durf Hyson	11	12	11	7	41

 

Thanks to all that attended, without your support, we wouldn’t have gravity racing here in New England.  And special thanks Peter for hosting.

Our next GRoNE event will be on February 24^th at LenJet Raceway.  Once again we’ll be racing Gravity cars on the Boomerang and T-Jets on the Python.

 

 

John Reimels

GRoNE Master of Ceremonies

Brass Car Enthusiast